The invention relates generally to call centers or other call processing systems in which voice calls, e-mails, faxes, voice messages, text messages, Internet service requests or other types of communications are distributed among a number of service agents for handling.
Call centers distribute calls and other types of communications to available service agents in accordance with various predetermined criteria. In even the busiest call center, situations can arise in which there is an opportunity to choose between two or more available agents to handle a particular call or other work item, a process referred to as agent selection. In addition, call centers routinely must assign to an available agent one of a number of work items awaiting service, a process referred to as work selection. Agent selection and work selection are also collectively referred to herein as work assignment.
Existing call centers generally utilize a fixed, sequential-approach to agent selection and work selection. Typically, a set of available agents or set of waiting work items is reduced in accordance with a fixed sequence of selection criteria until only one agent or work item remains. A significant problem with this fixed, sequential approach is that sometimes very minor differences between particular agents and work items can become the most influential in the selection, leading to an ultimate assignment decision that is not particularly well-aligned with business goals.
As an example, consider an agent selection process in which multiple agents are available to handle a given work item. The conventional approach applies a fixed, sequential series of steps in which a very small difference between values of a particular tested variable, if that variable is tested before other variables, can have an excessive amount of influence in reducing the set of agents from which to select. Although this problem may be alleviated in some circumstances by testing the variables in an order from most significant to least significant, a single fixed order of most significant to least significant may be difficult to define for all agents and all types of work items, particularly as the number of variables to be considered increases. Similar problems exist for the selection of one work item from among a set of multiple work items.
Agent selection in the above-noted fixed, sequential approach is typically limited to comparison of skill preference level and agent occupancy. Skill preference, if used, is generally considered first, without any comparison of agent occupancy at that preference level to the occupancy of agents at a lower preference level. Work selection in the fixed, sequential approach is generally limited to sequential elimination on the basis of factors such as skill preference, highest priority, and oldest waiting call.
Unfortunately, as noted above, these conventional agent selection and work selection techniques have been unable to provide optimum-performance and flexibility in terms of call center work assignment. A need therefore exists for improved techniques for assignment of work in a call center.
The invention provides methods and apparatus which improve the processing of calls or other work items in a call center. More particularly, the invention in an illustrative embodiment provides techniques for multi-variable assignment of work. In accordance with the invention, work items, such as voice calls, e-mails and other communications or tasks, are assigned to agents in a call center through a multi-variable work assignment process.
The multi-variable work assignment process may be configured to determine whether values of a particular variable characterizing the work items fall within a designated range, and if so to utilize at least one additional variable for, making the work assignment decision. The work assignment process may also or alternatively consider a weighted combination of multiple variables in making the work assignment decision.
Examples of variables which may be used in the multi-variable assignment process include current wait time, service objective, skill preference, skill level, anticipated wait time, predicted wait time, etc.
In an illustrative embodiment of the invention, a particular variable considered in an initial step of the work assignment process includes a ratio of a predicted wait time to a service objective for a given inbound voice call. If this ratio, as computed for each of a set of voice calls to be assigned, falls within a specified range ofxe2x80x9cessential equivalency,xe2x80x9d one or more additional variables such as current wait time, service objective, skill preference or anticipated wait time may be considered in the work assignment decision. The work assignment decision may also or alternatively be based at least in part on the skill levels associated with the work items, such that each agent is assigned a work item having the highest possible skill level.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the work assignment decision may be based at least in part on a comparison of a desired plan workload with an actual plan workload for each of the different types of work items to be assigned and for each of the available agents. In such an embodiment, the work items are assigned to the agents in a manner which tends to improve alignment of the corresponding actual plan workloads with the desired plan workloads.
In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, a weighting factor based on skill level may be applied to one or more of the multiple variables, such that the work assignment decision is based at least in part on the applied weighting factors. In one possible embodiment of this type, both a weighting factor and a customer satisfaction proficiency score are determined for each of the skill levels associated with the work items to be assigned. A product of (i) the weighting factor, (ii) the customer satisfaction proficiency score and (iii) a variable such as ratio of predicted wait time to service objective, is then computed for each of the work items, and the resulting products used to determine the appropriate work assignment.
Advantageously, the invention may be implemented in a variety of different types of work assignment processes. For example, the invention may be implemented in a one-to-many work assignment process which selects one of a set of agents available for handling a particular work item, in a many-to-one work assignment process which selects one of a set of work items for handling by a particular available agent, or in a many-to-many work assignment process in which multiple agents are each considered simultaneously for handling multiple work items.